1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus management system that manages image forming apparatuses connected by a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
As it is well known, in recent years, there is an image forming apparatus having plural functions such as a copy function, a facsimile function, a scanner function, a printer function, or an image filing function. Such an image forming apparatus is connected to, for example, an arbitrary number of personal computers (hereinafter referred to as PCs) and the outside via a network. Moreover, a plurality of such image forming apparatuses are connected by a network in order to improve convenience for users according to calculation based on an area of an office and the number of PCs.
When plural image forming apparatuses and plural PCs are connected via the network, a specific user can instruct different plural image forming apparatuses to print different print data and plural kinds of work can progress simultaneously. However, when the specific user exclusively uses all the image forming apparatuses, a situation in which other users cannot use the image forming apparatuses on demand occurs, resulting in deterioration in work efficiency as a whole.
Therefore, there is provided an image forming apparatus management system that performs management to allow respective users of plural PCs connected to plural image forming apparatuses via a network to efficiently use the image forming apparatuses.